MultiBit has been designed to be as easy to use as possible, but Bitcoin itself may take some getting used to. These articles are intended to provide useful explanations of common problems that people face. MultiBit HD is designed to be easy to use. It is designed for home users (or small merchants) who want to use a desktop computer for their day-to-day Bitcoin transactions.
Changes v0.4.1:
- Raise the maximum fee to enable faster transaction processing
- Rebrand application to KeepKey MultiBit
- Fix integration with TREZOR firmware version 1.3.6
- Add BIP 111 detection of SPV support by peer nodes
- Minor bug fix: Send transactions to your own wallet
Getting started with MultiBit
This guide will provide you with the first steps you should take after installing MultiBit so that you can be confident in how to do it safely.
Step 1 - Download and Install MultiBit
After downloading the installer, simply double-click the icon and follow the on-screen instructions. In most cases, simply accepting the default values is sufficient.
Step 2 - Create a wallet
The first screen you'll see is the Welcome Wizard, which will guide you step-by-step through creating your wallet.
The manual contains more detailed instructions if you need them.
Step 3 - Request Bitcoins
Once you have created your wallet, you can unlock it using your password. This will remove the wizard screens to show the main wallet. Selecting the Submit/Request link from the sidebar will show two buttons. Click the "Request Bitcoin" button to open the Bitcoin Request Wizard.
The manual contains more detailed instructions if you need them.
Step 4 - Send Bitcoins
On the Send/Request screen, click the Send Bitcoin button to open the Send Bitcoin wizard.
The manual contains more detailed instructions if you need them.
The best Bitcoin light wallets (BTC light wallet)
Below are some of the popular lightweight Bitcoin wallets or Bitcoin SPV clients.
They do not download the entire blockchain to your computer, which reduces download times and reduces bandwidth/storage requirements.
But, if your friend or relative wants to do everything himself, without having to bother and figure it out too much, then you can recommend “Matbi” to him. This is an online exchanger that also offers cryptocurrency wallet services. And, at the same time, very secure for the category of online wallets. Security comes from two aspects.
- Service reputation. This exchanger has been operating since 2014 and has earned good reviews.
- Three-factor authentication system. Withdrawal of funds from the wallet will be possible only if you know three types of passwords: pin, from SMS and email
Creating a wallet on “Matbi” is as easy as shelling pears: you just need to go through a quick registration using your phone number or email.
The Matbi wallet has a number of other advantages, the main ones being the following:
- The ability to buy, sell and exchange the following cryptocurrencies on the same platform: Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, Litecoin, DASH, ZCash, Monero, Binance Coin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Link, OmiseGO, TRON, WAVES, DAI, Ethereum Classic, DigiByte, Basic Attention Token, ZRX, QTUM, Lisk, KNC, Bitcoin Gold, Stellar. No hidden or extra fees, everything is fair and transparent
- Availability of a mobile application for Android and iOS
- The account can be replenished using various methods, including Visa/Master Card.
- Cryptocurrency transfers between Matbi accounts are not subject to transaction fees and are absolutely free.
All transactions are processed instantly and automatically. If the user has any questions, the Matbi team has prepared detailed video instructions.
How to install on Windows
Installation uses the standard 64-bit installer, which is suitable for Windows 7 and 10 (and some editions of Vista) and higher.
Please note that for security reasons MultiBit does not support Windows XP and below.
Double click the installer. Work with your installer - accepting the defaults is usually the easiest.
If you have a firewall set when you first open MultiBit HD, Windows will ask you if you want MultiBit HD to communicate through your Internet connection. MultiBit HD must communicate with the Bitcoin network and the multibit.org server, so allow this access.
Today I would like to tell you about the “light” or as it is also called “thin” Bitcoin wallet MultiBit Classic. “Thin” wallets are a cross between an online wallet and a hardware wallet that downloads the entire database of transaction blocks to your computer. This is not required when working with thin wallets.
I somehow never thought about installing a hardware wallet on my computer. Due to the fact that the amounts with which I worked were not large, and the computers on which I worked changed every couple of months. Therefore, until recently, it was very convenient for me to use online wallets. But the momentum is growing, the tasks are also becoming more difficult and you need to move to the next level. Online wallets have begun to increase commissions, transfers take several days, and in general a more reliable option is needed.
But still, I have not yet gotten around to installing a full-fledged Bitcoin Core wallet (I will have a separate article about it in a couple of days), but this is a matter of a few days. In the meantime, I decided to take a closer look at the intermediate option. These are so-called thin wallets, when the database of all transactions is not downloaded to your computer, taking up more than 100 GB of space and several hours (or even days) of time. But this seemingly plus is also a minus. After all, the MultiBit client performs all checks using the services of third parties, which negatively affects security. But this is still better than online wallets, which in principle work the same way, but in fact the wallet you use does not belong to you. Everything is just like on a more complex hardware wallet. The keys to the wallet belong to you. You can transfer your wallet from device to device or restore it after reinstalling the system.
As it turns out, downloading the classic version is no longer so easy. A newer version of MultiBit HD is being actively promoted online (I’ll also tell you about it one of these days). But this is a more complicated and expanded version. There are a lot of points that I didn’t like, or that I haven’t figured out yet, and the Internet doesn’t provide answers yet.
Just choose the version that suits your system. I pointed with an arrow to the file for Windows versions.
Download this file. We install the program following the instructions (essentially just click Next).
After which an icon like this will appear on your desktop. Click on it and launch the program.
This is what the first launch of the wallet looks like. The balance is zero, there are no transactions, and there is no wallet either. We wait until it connects to the network and synchronizes:
Once the wallet is synced (takes a few seconds) you will immediately have a created wallet. To find out his address, click on the “Request” tab and your address will be there:
To send bitcoins you need to open the “Send” tab, but before sending, you need to set up a commission:
To do this you need to go into settings. You can do this from the main menu: View -> Settings:
By default, the commission costs 10,000 satoshi per kilobyte. The average transaction takes from one to three kilobytes, so a commission of 10,000 - 30,000 hundred is quite normal for today's realities:
In general, MultiBit is a quick and simple solution for people without specific technical knowledge. The application has been translated into Russian. Synchronization with the network does not take more than a few minutes. The commission size is set in the program settings. Before sending the transfer, the program displays all data on the transfer (address, amount, commission).
As an intermediate option, I think it will do just fine. Later I will look into the new version of MultiBit HD in more detail. The main reason why I decided to start with the classics is that in the new version I could not find a list of wallets that change with each transfer. Those. Every time you request a transfer to your wallet, you receive a new address. And this is a little inconvenient in my current work.
How to install on Linux
The Linux installer does not come with Java pre-installed due to the huge variety of Linux distributions available. Therefore, you will need to prepare a suitable JVM for installation before running the installer. We recommend, however, due to issues with cryptography support in some Linux distributions, you may need to use the Oracle JVM instead (see the Troubleshooting section below).
Assuming you have a suitable JVM installed and you have downloaded the installer to your home directory, run the following in a command shell:
cd ~ chmod +x multibit-hd-unix-0.xysh ./multibit-hd-unix-0.xysh
After a while, MultiBit HD will show a wizard and install to ~/multibit-hd. Your application directory will be ~/.multibit-hd and will contain all your configuration and wallet files. It will appear on first launch. A base Unity .desktop file will be created and registered if available, so you can simply open Unity and search for "MultiBit" to get started (but see later). Alternatively, you can run from the command line like this (you'll see a lot of log messages this way):
cd multibit-hd ./multibit-hd &
After running the installer, you may need to run several scripts to further integrate MultiBit HD into your environment. In particular, KeepKey support requires certain udev rules to be in place. The following sections present these scenarios. If you have a distribution that is not included and have a script you would like to share, please let us know via the site link at the bottom of the page.
Recommended articles on the topic:
This post is also available in: English
Electrum
| Website: | https://electrum.org |
| OS: | Windows, Linux, Mac OS |
| Mobile applications: | Android (installed using QR codes) |
| Language: | English, Russian and 30 more languages |
| Multi-signatures: | Yes |
The lightweight Electrum wallet was developed in November 2011 and is regularly updated and offers its users new features. Read the article on the previous version of Electrum here. Installation instructions for Electrum can be viewed in this presentation (picture clickable):
To speed up work with the Bitcoin network and minimize resource consumption, the wallet does not download the block chain, thereby ensuring a quick launch. The peculiarity of Electrum is that it partially depends on the developer’s servers - it is from them that the necessary fragments of the blockchain are downloaded. The developer explains this by saying that this is faster and saves network traffic, since there is no need to waste time searching for peers. This wallet creates multiple addresses by default and supports a unique address feature for each transaction.
Without connecting to the network, you can create and sign transactions and export private keys. Like Multibit, Electrum supports importing and exporting private keys from other Bitcoin wallets, but does a little more, offering wallet tracking using a root certificate using compatible applications.
One of the distinctive features of the wallet is the ability to recover the private key. This is done using “seed” - a special secret phrase.
When installing a wallet, it is generated from 13 random words; the user is prompted to save this phrase on the computer, print it on a printer, or save it as a QR code. In case of problems with the computer, the user just needs to install Electrum on another PC and restore access to his coins by simply entering the seed.
Electrum v 2.0
In March 2015, a new version of the wallet was released. In addition to updating the program interface, which affected not only desktop wallets, but also the version for Android, Electrum pleased with the new method of derivation of keys and addresses (BIP32) and support for wallets that simultaneously use BIP32 and P2SH addresses. In addition, the ability to create a multi-signature and process BIP70 payment requests has been added.
An important addition was the ability to interact with Trezor and Btchip HW1 hardware wallets.
New options for using the wallet are offered during installation. You can create:
- Standard wallet
- Supports two-factor authentication
- Wallet with multi-signature transaction capabilities
- For cold storage and integration with hardware wallets
Multi-signatures and two-factor authentication
Multisignature is an opportunity to separately control the sending of coins. It is made only when all holders of private keys confirm it with their signature. In the Electrum multi-signature wallet, one of the computers must be online and the other must be offline to ensure security.
In addition, “payment requests” from BIP70 solve one of the issues of trade relations - in case of returning a product and paying for it, in disputes between the buyer and seller, the Multi-signature wallet will help - the ability to create transactions with a multi-signature according to the “2 out of 3” scheme.
Two-factor authenticated wallets add another layer of security - verifying the authenticity of the wallet from a remote server using TrustedCoin.
First of all, the security of coins in Electrum depends on the security of storing the seed. It is the secret phrase that will allow private keys to be regenerated, so all addresses can be restored. But if another person gets the secret phrase, he can do the same.
Popular BTC wallets for smartphones on iOS and Android
The world is becoming more and more mobile in the truest sense of the word. A smartphone is what we always take with us when leaving home. The mobile gadget allows you to have access to your Bitcoin wallet at any time and from anywhere in the world.
Therefore, almost all major Bitcoin wallets are available as mobile applications for iOS or Android.
iOS
Popular Bitcoin wallets for iPhone :
- Blockchain.com;
- Bitpay;
- Bither;
- Coinbase;
- Copay;
- Exodus;
- Edge.
Android
Owners of Android devices most often use the following mobile platforms for storing bitcoins:
- Blockchain.com;
- Electrum;
- GreenAddress;
- Mycelium;
- Bitcoin Wallet;
- Coinbase;
- JAXX;
- Exodus;
- BitPay;
- Electrum;
- Bither;
- Breadwallet.
Armory Bitcoin Wallet
Armory Wallet bills itself as “the only open source wallet with multi-signature and cold storage support.” The developers of this project previously worked on cryptography at Verisign, developing a specification for identity verification on the Internet.
Through the wallet, you can manage private keys offline, that is, it provides cold storage. Passwords are protected from being read by video cards using the key-stretching function. It also allows you to split the key into 7 signatures.
Armory Wallet is useful for sites such as exchanges that need to store a lot of coins in cold storage without constantly changing keys.
Open source code allows the community to check the reliability of the developer and work together to find bugs.
Armory wallet is available for Windows, Linux and Mac.
This wallet has a large collection of video instructions for fine-tuning.
Tutorials are located at: https://www.bitcoinarmory.com/tutorials/.
BitPay
BitPay Wallet is the official BitPay processing wallet. It supports multi-signature with two out of three authorized subscribers. It is based on the open source Copay wallet, but is not itself an open source project.
BitPay uses its own servers to conduct transactions, and keys are stored only on the device. With this solution, the project avoids phishing attacks, but is centralized, which will lead to failure in the event of DDoS attacks.
BitPay supports applications for iOS and Android and versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS, Chrome extension.
BitGo
BitGo delivers a solution for business users. It supports many cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and is used for hot wallets on many exchanges. The wallet allows you to confirm transactions with 3 out of 3 signatures. It is also compatible with hardware wallet.
BitGo uses several roles: administrator, sponsor, view only - they restrict access at different levels. Administrator can manage policy and account, and “view only” is suitable for auditing. The functionality also includes various restrictions and strategies, white lists, and the final signature (the one who approves last). The only negative is that the wallet works via the command line without a graphical interface.
What is Bitcoin multi-signature?
Most transactions on the Bitcoin network (and other blockchains) have a single signature. This means that they are carried out using only one private key. However, blockchains can handle much more complex transactions that require multiple private key signatures. Multi-signature transactions are also called M-of-N or multi-signature transactions.
- Each Bitcoin is created using a private key, which consists of a random sequence of numbers and letters. Without this key, bitcoins cannot be sent, that is, a transaction cannot be completed.
- Multi-signatures are obtained in this way: each private key is divided into several pieces. These pieces are stored separately from each other.
- They may belong to different people or to one person who wants to protect their savings from hackers.
- To send a transaction, you need to collect all the pieces and get the private key.
A multi-signature wallet requires more than one private key to conduct any transactions. In practice, this means that you can configure your wallet to require 4 of the 7 authorized signatures to complete a transaction. Only when a transaction is signed by 4 authorized parties does it become valid. It's an ideal way to keep funds safe, manage company or community assets, and even recover if you lose one key.
